Arrival

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Arrival

PG-13

Released Nov 11, 2016

1h 56m

Sci-Fi

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

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Popcornmeter

94%

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442 Reviews

82%

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50,000+ Ratings

Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.

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Critics Consensus

Arrival delivers a must-see experience for fans of thinking person's sci-fi that anchors its heady themes with genuinely affecting emotion and a terrific performance from Amy Adams.

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Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

The Blue Lenses

Arrival transcends the limitations that so often govern the less creative examples of the subgenre, instead using it as a loose conceptual foundation upon which to build a theoretically-informed examination of what precisely ... makes us human.

Aug 25, 2018

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Kristen Lopez

Culturess

Arrival couldn't have arrived (pun intended) at a better time.

Nov 20, 2017

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K. Austin Collins

The Ringer

I think of Arrival in terms of color: the milky grays of the clouds rolling over the Montana plain; the bright blue of computer screens bouncing off the gray tents on the makeshift army compound.

Aug 10, 2017

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JD Duran

InSession Film

The film works as a powerful allegory for how we try to decode and interpret the tragedies of our lives.

Aug 8, 2024

Full Review

Ankit Ojha

Cinema Elite

Without spoiling too much, let’s just say Villeneuve and Heisserer use the Kuleshov effect to turn the non-linear storytelling of “Arrival” from a gimmick to an indispensable part of the film.

Rated: 4.5/5

Jul 9, 2024

Full Review

Anthony McGlynn

Vague Visages

Arrival is a work that resents the necessity of violence. However, the film ditches some of the meditative qualities of the bleakness-to-idealism dialectic of the album in favor of making a cold hard stand against war and those who clamour for it.

Feb 6, 2024

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Jonathan F

Extremely short-paced, felt like most of the movie was empty without a real driving story. I would have hoped for more action.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/22

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Katie D

An amazing film! very well-done, thought-provoking, entertaining and unpredictable. my only complaint is about the loud horn blasts that accompany so many science fiction movie scenes - unnecessary, unrealistic and distracting! other than that it was awesome!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/15/21

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Levi P.

Thought-provoking but a bit dry and dark for my tastes. Sci-fi is my top genre nowadays, so I was super excited to watch this. As expected, it’s a great look at what a first contact event might look like. The premise of the movie alone is fascinating, and the execution mostly lives up to it (at least one specific part of it). The story definitely feels more like thoughtful literature vs a hollywood flick. I came away feeling… very sad, but also like something was missing. For my tastes, and being a parent, I found the kid storyline hard to watch (seriously, I need a trigger warning for kid/parent trauma). That said, it does serve a purpose and gives the watcher a dilemma to gnaw on after the credits roll. As for what was missing, I was a bit disappointed at how narrow in scope the film was. I feel like the concept of aliens landing on Earth is such a fascinating concept, and I would have liked to get a wider view of how humanity handled it. While we got some of that, it was a B or C storyline in the background. For me, the linguistic aspects were not interesting enough to take up so much screen time. All that said, I acknowledge the movie was well executed, and just wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea. Nothing really stuck with me, but if you like hard, focused sci-fi, you will love this.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/06/25

Full Review

Dave H

It was definitely okay. Not brilliant but worth a watch.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/05/25

Full Review

Tom F

I enjoyed my original viewing but my 2025 rewatch opened me to more layers of emotional depth.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/29/25

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Jared R.

A touching and heartwarming masterpiece.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/28/25

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Denis Villeneuve

Director

Amy Adams

Louise Banks

Jeremy Renner

Ian Donnelly

Forest Whitaker

Colonel Weber

Michael Stuhlbarg

Agent Halpern

Mark O'Brien

Captain Marks

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Arrival: TV Spot - Solve the Mystery

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Arrival: Trailer 2

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Arrival: International Trailer 1

2:31

Arrival: Trailer 1

2:25

Arrival: 'Global War' Teaser

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Synopsis

Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Producer: Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, David Linde
Screenwriter: Eric Heisserer
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: 21 Laps Entertainment, Lava Bear Films, FilmNation
Rating: PG-13 (Brief Strong Language)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 11, 2016, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jan 27, 2017
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 31, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $100.5M
Runtime: 1h 56m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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